In 1969, a Former US President Allegedly Spotted a UFO ‘About the Size of the Moon’ and Was Convinced Aliens Exist

In the realm of American politics, a few topics are as controversial or captivating as the possibility of alien life. While UFO sightings have often been brushed off as mere fantasy, it still has resurfaced again and again for decades. The U.S. government has even declassified several military encounters, indicating that there is something not so normal around us. Intriguingly, once upon a time, someone who sat in the Oval Office claimed to have seen a UFO with his own eyes. Hard to believe, right? Surprisingly, it was none other than former President Jimmy Carter, stated Unilad.

The 39th President of the United States was not just a fan, he was a true believer. Long before his presidency, on January 6, 1969, Carter had a personal encounter that would stay with him for the rest of his life. Standing outside a small restaurant in Leary, Georgia, with about a dozen members of the local Lions Club, Carter spotted something unusual in the sky just after 7:15 p.m. He recalled, "It was about 30 degrees above the horizon and looked about as large as the moon. It got smaller and changed to a reddish color and then got larger again," stated Politico. The whole group was too stunned to speak for 10 to 12 minutes as the object moved toward them, then away, before disappearing into thin air.

Moreover, Carter even had a tape recorder with him that evening and captured several of his colleagues’ reactions to the bizarre sighting. Four years later, when Carter was the Governor of Georgia and preparing for a presidential run, he submitted a formal report of the incident to the International UFO Bureau, according to Unilad. He claimed that his background as a trained naval officer with experience in nuclear physics should be taken into consideration before labeling him as a conspiracy theorist. While Carter did not blatantly claim it was an alien spacecraft, he insisted it was there for sure.

Intriguingly, during his 1976 campaign, Carter promised full transparency on UFOs. He reportedly said, "One thing's for sure, I'll never make fun of people who say they've seen unidentified objects in the sky…If I become president, I'll make every piece of information this country has about UFO sightings available to the public and the scientists," as per Unilad. However, once in office, he walked back the pledge, citing "defense implications." 

Decades later, in 2016, former Air Force scientist Jere Justus may have all the answers to decode this mystery. After reviewing Carter’s account, Justus connected the sighting to a high-altitude barium cloud released from a rocket at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. Justus remarked, "The rapid growth in apparent cloud size and brightness, followed by the subsequent diminishment in both size and brightness, could easily be interpreted by an observer as an ‘object’ first approaching and then receding," according to Politico. These glimmering clouds, used for atmospheric research, can look like weird shapes to an untrained eye, especially from 150 miles away. Now, the reality of this incident is known only to those who saw it; for the rest of us, we can just wait for our turns.